Hello, hello! I am back from a very long break from blogging! I have a few photos from sessions in the past few weeks that I just haven’t posted over the summer holiday. I promise to back-track and post them in the next days to come.

It’s definitely raining babies! Since the start of August, I have had NINE friends who have given birth! Some of them are friends here where I live and the others are scattered all over the world. I am so excited for all these women! I wish I had my own personal jet so I can just go and photograph these new babes!

One baby who didn’t require me to fly is Baby Henry. He is the beautiful little boy of my friend, Amy, who lives just down the street from me. It was such a pleasure to photograph both of them during Henry’s first week. I am hoping to take more photos in the next few days of this little man with his two older brothers.

{Amy–Thank you so much for asking me to photograph the latest addition to your beautiful family! I hope you enjoy these and I will definitely be coming back to take more photos of the three boys all together…. See you soon!}

Meet Baby Aliyah, barely one week old when these photos were taken. Isn’t she just lovely? I am sure you would remember her mum’s maternity session a few posts back.

I have to admit that the few hours before I photographed Aliyah, I was in a slightly upsetting situation. You know, the type of situation where you either want to lock yourself in your closet and bawl or distract yourself with some serious retail therapy. Both of which, I just could not do because a) I do not have a closet with enough space to fit myself in, and b) I have simply forgotten how to shop! Anyway, I digress. Bottomline is, I was not in the best of moods to take photographs.

However, I persevered and made my way to meet this family. And boy, I am so glad I did! I realise I just found a new way of coping with doldrums–newborn therapy! In the two hours that I spent photographing Aliyah and her family, I quickly forgot about how tough my morning was and I felt a whole lot better. I have this little angel to thank for….

{Ulani and David–you must be very proud of your little kiddies! Thank you for the great afternoon!}

Meet Bo and Herbie. The birth of these twins is a story of love, perseverance and hope. (Photographed at 14 days old.)

Their parents, Niki and Jason, have had trouble tried getting pregnant for years. When IVF didn’t work them, they both looked for other options and decided to give egg donation a go.

Finding an egg donor proved to be difficult. Their story was featured in one of the national papers and after it was published, 200 women contacted Niki and Jason, all willing to donate their eggs. For various reasons, they couldn’t find a suitable donor from the people who contacted them at that time. In the end, one of Niki’s old friends stepped forward to donate her eggs to the couple. Not too long after, Niki became pregnant.

And now, she is blessed with twins–a boy and a girl.

There is a huge shortage of egg donors in the UK where there is an average waiting list for two to five years. Moreover, since donor anonymity has been removed by the law, fertility clinics are seeing an adverse effect in the number of spem and eggs being donated. Niki and Jason supports the National Gamete Donation Trust, a government-funded charity which aims to raise awareness about egg donation and change the problem of donor shortage. For more details, visit the NGDT website.

{Niki, it was such a pleasure and a privilege to have met you and your beautiful twins! Your love and devotion was so evident and so beautiful to see. It’s my hope that other people get inspired by your story as I did . I cannot wait to show you the rest of your photographs!}

Spring has definitely come and it is the perfect time to launch Bitten Smitten Photography’s new website and blog. I hope that you are finding your way around easily around the website and enjoying the new photos on the galleries. I’m also excited about this new blog! I have so many photos to show from previous sessions and I am hoping the new blog design will work well.

A special shout-out to the superstars who helped make it all work: my sister, Rhea and friends, KP and Marchesa. They’ve been brilliant!

I hope you have enjoyed your visit and do drop by again soon!

{This post will remain on top of the blog until April 7th, 2009. Think of it as a welcome sign for everyone who is visiting the new home for the first time! Please scroll down for recent entries!}